It is so wild moving through life and later reconnecting with old friends. The years have passed quickly – working, growing a family and getting busy with life. It’s that crazy current that sweeps us all downstream.

One of the great things about old friends is that they are familiar, and trust is typically already established. It was so easy to share our kids with our college friends, James and Rachel Winslow recently. We were all at the University of Rochester in upstate New York many years ago, then went on to grad school, professional arenas and now working hard to love our kids. It was so sweet to watch James and Rachel parent their four-year-old and live their cool life out in Santa Barbara.

James works for the City of Goleta as an engineer. Rachel is a professor at Westmont. They work hard and play hard like us.

Many years ago, we backpacked the Adirondacks together and little did we know the freedom we had.

James and I played sports together – basketball, tennis and anything else our group of friends was up to. We were able to get out to hit a bit of tennis with my boys. Pretty surreal to watch him play with them. They are the young ones now.

You won’t meet too many people with more passion and energy than Rachel. She has a wonderful mind and a big heart. We had a lot of fun, intellectual conversations around policy, life and faith. All this while she serenaded us with fresh California vegetables, great wine and artful cooking. Our taste buds and our minds were bouncing around.

Our kids had a blast with their little boy. They played on the trampoline and around the estate and acted like big cousins.

During the workdays, the kids were able to skate around Santa Barbara boardwalks and enjoy the beach. I camped down in beach coffee shops and worked with clients and on projects. In the evenings we reconnected with the Winslows getting in some runs and workouts then to great conversations.

Our college friends are pretty amazing people. We went to a top notch school, and it ceases to amaze me how all of our friends have high expectations of themselves and are out there making wonderful things happen. They have such high standards, and it really refreshes Sonya and me to be back around our old peers. We feel motivated to keep pushing in our own work and lives to be excellent and focused. I guess that’s why we were all at that school in the first place, and it’s the legacy we enjoy from our time together.

Our kids have gotten to experience that vibe from our Rochester alum friends as well. We have talks about what they want to accomplish, and it’s so great that they see such friends like the Winslows apart from mom and dad doing great things.

We were sad to leave but so happy to reconnect with James and Rachel. I think that the visit only jumpstarted things for the future for our families again. California is not so far anymore.